“When did creating a flawless facade become a more vital goal than learning to love the person who lives inside your skin?”

“HOW do you define a word without concrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, soWHYpush to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree isWHERE you want to be? Faultless. Finished. Incomparable. People can never be these, and anyway,WHENdid creating a flawless facade become a more vital goal than learning to love the personWHOlives inside your skin? The outside belongs to others. Only you should decide for you -WHATis perfect.”

“Perfect?How do you define a word withoutconcrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, sowhy push to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree iswhereyou want to be? Faultless.Finished. Incomparable. Peoplecan never be these, and anyway,whendid creating a flawless facadebecome a more vital goalthan learning to love the person wholives inside your skin?The outside belongs to others.Only you should decide for you---whatis perfect”

“Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.”

“Things which sound like platitudes become vital, living and powerful when you have to learn them in dark tunnels.”

“Characters take on life sometimes by luck, but I suspect it is when you can write more entirely out of yourself, inside the skin, heart, mind, and soul of a person who is not yourself, that a character becomes in his own right another human being on the page.”